WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision that no state can disqualify a presidential candidate from national office destroyed any chance that Minnesota voters could prevail in an attempt to bar Donald Trump from running for president again in the state.
Last year, eight voters — led by former Minnesota Secretary of State Joan Growe and the election reform group Free Speech for People — filed a suit in the state to keep Trump off the presidential primary ballot.
The voters argued that Trump had violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, known as the “insurrection clause,” established after the Civil War to bar former Confederate officers from holding public office.
But the Minnesota Supreme Court in November ruled they could not bar Trump from the state’s primary ballot under the insurrection law because primaries are party-led events that do not result in the election of a public officer.
Still, there was a chance the U.S. Supreme Court would allow the Minnesota lawsuit to be revived if Colorado, which barred Trump from its ballot based on the former president’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when protestors stormed the Capitol, prevailed at the Supreme Court.
But the high court said only Congress could decide whether someone’s candidacy is unconstitutional and warned of chaos if a candidate for statewide office is ineligible in some states, but not others.
“Responsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the States,” the ruling said.
Section 3 does not specify who is responsible for enforcing the clause.
Up to the voters
The high court’s decision was issued on the eve of Super Tuesday, the day when 15 states, including Minnesota, hold their primary contests.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said Trump’s fate is now in the voters’ hands.
“The unanimous ruling by the United States Supreme Court provides voters the clarity and finality they deserve,” he said in a statement. “We now know that former President Trump will remain on the Republican Primary ballot across the country — including in Minnesota. Voters are in charge of what happens next.”
While the decision was unanimous, the Supreme Court’s three liberal justices also wrote a separate opinion saying the conservative majority went too far “in its attempts to insulate all alleged insurrectionists from future challenges to their holding office.”
In a statement, Free Speech For People said the Supreme Court had made a “mockery” of Section 3 and “encourages Trump — and those who follow his example — to engage in more insurrections.”
“The Supreme Court has ruled that — despite inciting and facilitating a violent insurrection that defeated federal law enforcement … the disgraced ex-president Donald Trump can run for office again because this critical provision of the Constitution, designed to prevent exactly this situation, cannot be enforced,” Free Speech For People said.
It also said the high court did not deny that Trump engaged in insurrection, only that states could not apply the insurrection clause.
“As of today, states can exclude a presidential candidate from the ballot because he did not submit the proper paperwork with the proper number of verified signatures, but not because he fomented a bloody insurrection against the U.S. Constitution,” Free Speech For People said.
Cheers from the GOP
Trump hailed the decision.
“BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!” Trump wrote in all-caps on his social media site.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, echoed that sentiment. “This is a big win for the American people and election integrity,” Emmer posted on X about the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Ana Radelat
Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.
